You can ask any boxer and they will tell you that training takes a lot of preparation and hard work. They have to train their bodies by working them out on a daily basis so that they can stay physically fit. Eating healthy is also a must if they plan on reaching peak physical agility and fitness. And they even have to stay mentally fit as well. They can’t allow their opponents to psych them out on fight day, so they make sure to find ways to not let the nay-Sayers trip them up. They do all of this preparation so that they can be well equipped to put up their best fight on D-day. And when these fighters step into the ring on that fateful day, they don’t know what their future will hold. They don’t have some crystal ball that will tell them whether or not they’ll win the fight. They might end up winning with the best fight of their life or they might end up getting beat so badly that the fight only lasts a few minutes, but even though they do not know the outcome, they still get out there knowing that they have put in all the preparation that they need to be a contender.

The future can be a pretty scary thing for boxers, and it can be equally as terrifying for us. We don’t like the unknown and uncertainties, and the future seems to hold a lot of that. We already know what happened in the past because it already happened, and we know what’s going on in the present because it’s happening right now at this very second, but the future will now and forever more be a mystery to everyone, and this is understandably unsettling.

Even though boxers are uncertain of their futures in the same way that we are uncertain of ours, one of the things they can say when they get into the ring is that they have learned from past mistakes. If they have faced this particular opponent before then they know to watch out for his uppercut and to not fall for all of his tricks. They know how this person fights because they have faced them before, and because they have faced them before, they know what they need to do to have a better chance at beating their foe. They want to get hit less, and they realize that they cannot expect to win if they step into the ring and do the exact same thing that they did in the past when they faced their competitor the last time, so they change it up and adjust their techniques and tactics based upon the lessons that they learned from the past. And even though the outcome of the next fight is uncertain, they can go into the ring with a little bit more confidence because they have these lessons from the past that can guide them to victory.

If boxers going into the ring can carry lessons from the past into there with them then so can you. You see the thing is positive thinker, when you learn from your past, no matter how painful it may be, you can use those lessons and apply them to future challenges that may be similar to what you have already gone through. Good things have happened to us in the past and so have bad things and we often think about these things. When we think about the good things we smile as we look on at these memories with fondness, but when the bad memories enter into our consciousness we often times become scared of them. We hold on to these bad memories, but most of the time we don’t use them to benefit us in some way like we do with our good memories. So, instead of holding on to the bad things from the past, you should let go of these bad memories. Let go of the memories, but carry any and all lessons that you have learned from your painful past into the future with you.

The future may end up seeming a little less scary when you show up each day with an arsenal of life lessons that can help you to combat any potential threats that you might face. Remember you don’t ever want to show up to a fight unprepared. Even the smallest bit of preparation can give you an edge over whomever or whatever you’re facing, and when you come to your fight with your lessons in hand you will end up having just a little bit more of advantage to help you win that fight!

In the wise words of Rafiki, “Oh yes, the past can hurt. But the way I see it you can either run from it or learn from it.”

Like this:

Have you ever meant someone who is truly passionate about something? This person could be passionate about his or her career or maybe even a hobby that they have. Or perhaps they just so happen to be passionate about some worthy cause like feeding starving children or stopping animal abuse. It’s even possible that you might know someone out there who is passionate about another person in their life. And when you meet these kinds of people or hear about them do you ever think about how they’re able to do the things that they do? Have you ever wondered why somebody can sit in a tree for weeks and protest against some big business that is destroying a forest full of wild life? Have you ever looked at someone and wondered how they could put so many hours into their job to the point that they fail to spend enough time with their loved ones and start to lose sleep, and yet, despite all this, they still have a smile on their face? Or have you ever heard of someone who decided to move to some poor village in a third world country so that they could spend time helping out those who don’t have as much as they do? All of these scenarios involve different people doing very different things, but they do have one common factor. All of these people are passionate about these things that they have decided to devote so much of their life to; they have a why.

And they don’t just have a why. They have a strong why. These people can’t do the things that they do without having a why that’s strong enough. You don’t leave your family, give up all of your gizmos and gadgets, and move to the middle of nowhere because you’re kind of into helping make life better for people who are living in poverty. You do it because it’s a cause that you strongly believe in.

Or you could do all of these big acts if your why wasn’t that strong, but if you did do it you probably wouldn’t be happy while doing it. Joining the Peace Corps or some other similar organization isn’t for everybody and that’s because not everyone can find a why that’s big enough and strong enough to help them through their time of service. Wanting other people to think that you’re a good person isn’t going to get you through all of those years, but truly wanting to make a difference in the lives of those who are less fortunate probably will.

And p­­­­­­ositive thinkers, you need to find your whys in everyday situations too. So figure out the reason why you’re working that job that you have. Find out the reason why you’re in the relationship with that guy or that girl. Find out the reason why you get up and go to church every Sunday. And find out the why behind why you go to the places that you go. Finding your whys aren’t just for the people who are deciding to give up their life of luxury in order to join the Peace Corps. It’s for everyone.

The chances are, if the whys behind whatever you’re doing in your everyday life can support the activities that you’re doing then you’re going to have enough energy and determination to keep up with those activities even when they get tough. If the why behind the activities that you’re doing aren’t strong enough then you have two options…

You can either choose to give up on that thing that you’re doing that doesn’t have a big enough why for you, or you can search to find another why that is big enough. And neither of these options are necessarily bad decisions for you too make. If you want to keep up with whatever activity you’re doing then finding a new why that’s stronger will help you to keep on doing that activity even when you’ve lost some interest in it. Sometimes your why needs to change and there’s nothing wrong with that because as we change our whys might have to change right along with us. And if not having a big enough why is problematic for you and if you’re unable to figure out a why that is big enough for you to keep on doing that thing that you don’t want to do then giving up on it might be what’s best for you. That thing might not be important enough for you to keep on pushing through with it, but if it is important to you, and you do want to keep on going on then make sure that you find a strong enough why that will help you to keep on moving forward. ­­­­

Positive thinker, the next time you take on something new or the next time you find yourself loathing an activity that you’re engaging in ask yourself this…

“Why am I doing this?”

“What’s driving me to do this?”

“What’s that thing that’s going to push me forward even when things start to get difficult?”

Like this:

Acronyms get used all of the time. I’m sure you know quite a few of them yourself. For instance, you probably used them in school to try and remember things that didn’t come as easy to you as you would have liked them to. For those of us who weren’t the best in math, we used Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally or PEMDAS (Parentheses, Exponent, Multiplication, Division, Addition, Subtraction) in order to figure out what we were supposed to do first whenever we tried to remember our order of operations. And for those of us who weren’t musically inclined we used Every Good Boy Does Fine so that we could fill out our music sheets the right way.

Acronyms almost seemed like a necessity as we went through school. We might not need them anymore to help us get through math class or music class, but we can still use them to get through difficult times in our adult lives.

I recently came across a few acronyms (I wish I could take credit for coming up with them on my own), and I thought that it would be nice to share them with you positive thinkers. These three acronyms spell out words that are typically thought to have a negative connotation wrapped around them. And when we hear words that are dripping with negativity, it becomes difficult for us to move from a place of feeling down and out to a place of feeling good about ourselves (and that’s what we really need whenever we’re confronted with negativity). Merriam Webster may have a negative definition listed for these words, but when they are transformed into the following acronyms, the message speaks to one of positivity and resilience in the face of trying times instead of negativity and hopelessness…

F.A.I.L, or First Attempt In Learning, is what you should think of whenever you don’t succeed at something. This is a particularly good weapon to have in hand whenever you experience failure. Many times when we fail, we feel like giving up. We see our failure as a sign for us to move on, but it doesn’t have to be that. When you fail at something that just means that you haven’t learned everything that you need to know in order for you to succeed at whatever you’re attempting to do. Now when you fail, you can think of this acronym and use it to go back to the drawing board and come up with a way to succeed for the next time.

The next acronym is E.N.D. Now, E.N.D no longer means the end. I want you to remember that it means Effort Never Dies. Just because somebody has told you that you can’t go any further doesn’t mean that you have to stop going. There will always be bigger, better, and higher goals for you to reach, which means that you can keep on pushing forward and achieving. And even if you hit a road block or something that may appear to be an end, it doesn’t mean that all of your effort dies with this barricade. All it means is that the effort that you have put in thus far can lead you to a new path that works even better.

The last word is N.O. And whenever you hear the word N.O, I want you to realize that this is just your Next Opportunity. Just because this person doesn’t want you, doesn’t mean that somebody else won’t. If you didn’t get that job that you wanted, that just means that you can have another opportunity to find a job that might end up being even better than the one that turned you down. If that guy or that girl that you like doesn’t like you back then now you can have a new opportunity to meet somebody that does like you. I know that it totally sounds cliché, but it’s true what they say, “When one door closes, another door opens.” And all that means is that when somebody says no to you it sets you up to have a different opportunity to have another person that will say yes. So the next time a door closes in your face, look for another door that will let you in.

If you ever come across any of these words in your life, I encourage you to not turn to Webster’s definition to define your experience. Instead, try and recall these acronyms. If you do that positive thinker, you will find yourself dealing with your situation in a much more positive and brighter light.

Remember…

“If you fail never give up because F.A.I.L means, ‘first attempt in learning.’

Like this:

Sometimes it seems like we are harder on ourselves than anybody else could ever be. When we fail at something that we thought we could succeed at, disappointment usually sets in and that is expected. When our reality doesn’t match what we expected to happen we usually do feel disappointed, but we need to be careful because this disappointment becomes dangerous when it morphs into self-loathing.

We may start to dislike ourselves for the failures we have experienced, and once we start hating ourselves for one failure, it usually isn’t long before we start to beat up on ourselves for other failures that we experience. We may end up reaching a place where all we see is the failures that we experience, and when all we see is the negative we usually end up getting to a place where we end up being mean and nasty to ourselves because we can’t seem to do anything right. We become bullies. And our victim is our self.

And bullies don’t just beat somebody up once and leave. Once they find a victim they keep on attacking this person until they get bored or until they just decide to move on to somebody else. The same thing could happen to you once you start to beat up on yourself. You may have thought that you were only going to beat up on yourself for one failure, but once you get finished beating yourself up for the first time you may also creep into the habit of beating yourself up every time that you think you’ve done something poorly. And once you get into a habit of beating yourself up, it will become harder and harder for you to stop because unlike someone who bullies other people, you don’t have to go searching for your victim because your victim is also the person who is doing the bullying.

But let me ask you this question positive thinker…

If you don’t tolerate other people beating you up, whether it is physically or emotionally, then why would it be okay for you to inflict this kind of punishment on to yourself? You may think that you deserve it, but nothing you do can ever be bad enough that you should think that it’s okay for you to beat yourself up over it, so you should avoid doing it.

When you beat yourself up you have all the power to make the punishment stop. It many be hard to do, but you do have the ability to end the beatings. When somebody else bullies you, you have to find a way to make them stop hurting you, and that can be difficult because you can’t control another person’s actions. However, when you’re the one doing the bullying, you can make yourself stop because you are the only one who has complete control over your own actions. You may think that whatever you did deserves a self-beating, but making yourself feel lousy isn’t going to change your situation. Your circumstance will change when you stop being so hard on yourself. If you’ve ever been bullied or if you ever had anyone do or say anything to make you feel bad about yourself then you know how easy it is for another person’s actions to make you think less of yourself. As long as the bullying keeps up you continue to feel bad about yourself, but once the bullying finally stops you can start to feel better about yourself again. And feeling better about yourself may not come instantaneously, especially if you were bullied for a long time, but eventually you end up getting to a place where you realize that just because you were bullied doesn’t mean that what the bully said to you was accurate in any way. You’ll start to realize that you have done good things and that you have accomplished a lot and that those accomplishments deserve celebration, so that’s exactly what you should do.

Celebrate your victories positive thinker because when you set out to achieve a goal and you do end up achieving it, you should be happy because it wouldn’t have been possible without all of your hard work. And don’t just celebrate the big wins; the little ones are important as well. It’s important to celebrate the little wins in life because the big ones usually don’t come as frequently as the little ones do, and if we sit around only waiting for the big ones to come we may end up being disappointed with ourselves because focusing on the big ones has caused us to believe that we aren’t accomplishing anything. However, when we see and appreciate the small victories, we also can start to give ourselves the push that we need to strive for bigger victories. When we see that we are able to accomplish our goals, no matter how small, we start to see that we are capable of being victorious and when this happens we start to believe in ourselves, which is something that we need to have happen if we are ever going to achieve our big goals.

When you stop beating yourself up over something that you didn’t achieve then you can focus on what you have achieved. You’ve accomplished goals that you’ve set out to accomplish positive thinker, you just have to stop beating yourself up long enough to see it. Making the decision to stop hating yourself for something that you weren’t able to do is half the battle because once you decide to stop inflicting pain on to yourself you can start to find things that you’ve done that will make you not want to think so negatively about yourself anymore.

The path to achieving what you want to achieve first starts with you making the decision to not beat up on yourself when you falter in your plan. Everyone makes mistakes, but you don’t have to beat yourself up for it. Focus on finding the good that you have done positive thinker, and that will help to give you the boost and encouragement that you need to continue on with your goals.

Remember positive thinker, “Keep beating yourself up, and you will find yourself in the same situation, keep praising your efforts and you will exceed your expectations.”

Today, I woke up thinking about the word, Precipice. According to the World English Dictionary, Precipice means the steep sheer face of a cliff or crag or a precarious situation. The definition has me envisioning myself standing right on the edge of said cliff, looking down into an abyss of precariousness. That sounds scary, right? I mean…what is down there?

In my musings, I’ve determined that what lies in that deep dark place is a decision that a person is fearful of making and the dark abyss is our own doubts making us wonder if we would survive the decision (the leap) and its resulting consequences. A precipice is something that we encounter in our lives when we are making huge, life changing decisions such as deciding to change a job or become self-employed, or even when we are deciding whether or not we want to stay in our current relationships. Those types of decisions have us in a complete tizzy because they have the power to change our whole lives, our whole routine, and it can be for the better or for the worse, if we will it so.

I think all people have these points in their lives where they feel they are at the precipice of something. Something has them wanting to adjust an integral part of their lifestyles and they are standing at that cliff’s edge wondering if they would be strong enough to navigate the darkness and still land on their feet at the bottom if they took that leap. To them, it can seem impossible and that hypothetical death seems certain. They know something needs to change if they are unhappy and that’s how they got to that cliff’s edge in the first place but the fear traps them in their situation and often, that is just where their lives stagnate with minimal growth because they cowered from that edge.

But what if we had options? Instead of thinking of the leap causing pain with a broken and devastating collapse at the bottom of the dark abyss, what if we believed we could make it over and to the other side (even if we are a bit bloody and bruised when we landed?) We, at Positivity Works!, feel that a person’s confidence and belief in themselves and their reselience is what gives our minds the super powers to fly over the doubt and fear. Remember, this precipice is not literal. It was created, developed, and made darker and scarier by our own minds, doubts, fears, and experiences. We will make it through the decision we make no matter what (i.e. how hard it is, how stressful it is, how much it makes us cry), because we have trained our minds to be that strong. It is the truth if we will it so. And if our truth is that nothing in that abyss can hurt us because we created it, then we will always win. Just as whatever happens in life is just an occurence and if you believe you can get through it, you will.

Today, the word Precipice was on my mind because I have a big decision to make. But no matter what I decide, I know that I will survive because I know my mind is strong enough for the leap. I will make it to the other side and so will you, just train your mind to believe it and will your body to get it done.

If you, positive thinker, are also at a precipice, here is some musical inspiration to help you with your own leap to the other side. You’ve got this.

Like this:

Wally has really brought a whopper of positivity this time, folks! Scroll down to the video below for Wally’s Video Pick for Good Vibes and be ready for some amazing-ness! I literally could not wipe the smile off my face for a good ten minutes after watching this video. In fact, I might just have to arrange to watch it every morning during my cup of coffee so that I can start off my daily positivity routine in a proper manner. The little girl in it is precious, her bathroom sink is precious and her curly reddish locks are precious! I heart her.

This video shows us all about enjoying the moment and being happy for the things you have. The little angel seems to be an expert at affirmations and self-motivation and she probably can’t even read yet. I think I will go around all day singing her little song! “My whole house is great *big clap*…I can do anything good, I like my room…I love my hair, I love my haircut, I can do anything good! Better than anyone…”